(THE TALL) MISSOURI OAK
(words & music by Richard Neal & S. K. Miller copyright 2006)

The demand was for armchairs and paper
Railroad ties and firewood, too
So they focused on the forests of the Ozarks
Where the mighty Missouri Oak grew

Mile after mile of virgin timber
It covered every inch of every single hill
They cut roads through the grove and the thicket        
On the river banks they built the saw mills

<<CHORUS>>
They let loose their blades on the woodlands                    
Gave jobs to a whole lot of folks
Way down in the Ozarks
They harvested the tall Missouri Oak

So many logs clogging up the river                          
From bank to bank like the floor of a raft            
When you worked out there and you fell in the water
You might as well write your own epitaph

<<CHORUS>>
You'd be trapped beneath a ceiling of timber       
Your chance of survival remote
Way down in the Ozarks                                               
Where they clear cut all the tall Missouri Oak

<<CHORUS>>
When they finally felled all the trees in the forest 
There were no more jobs for any of those folks
Way down in the Ozarks
There were no more tall Missouri Oaks
Way down in the Ozarks
Where they harvested the tall Missouri Oak